Has anyone been trout fishing in the Pittsburgh area? Trying to find out about streams in the Butler Armstrong county area.Went to Buffalo Creek near Worthington yesterday water was low and clear a guy caught 5 rainbows using bait. Still trying to get first fish on fly.Thx Norm

If there are rainbows try a royal wulff. I don't know much about streams out there, I don't get out west too often anymore. But there are some good ones. Check the Class a list and the Natural Reproduction list. The one I know about is Hell Run, but I'm not supposed to mention it here, I'm going to anyway cause I'm sick of the BS caused by a small minority of boneheads that use his site. Warning... Hell Run is steep and difficult to get to from the bottom, but the reward is worth it.

Not a whole lot to choose from up here. If it is trout you are after, Buffalo or Slippery Rock are your best bet, and they are spotty right now. Buffalo is good for a lot of species right now if you aren't limiting yourself to trout on a fly.

I fished Slippery Rock and Hell run a little bit on Sunday. Didn't get anything on SRC, but didn't fish long either. Since it was low and clear I went up on the bridge to see if I could spot any but I didn't. I'm sure theres still some left though. I fished the upper part of Hell Run(still below the waterfall though, above it is almost dry now) and it is super low. Didn't catch any, and I looked around for fish on redds and didn't see any either. I've never seen it that low. I'd wait till spring to fish there.

Neshannock is an option. It's not fishing real good though. I posted a report last Wednesday I think.

theres actually a good amount if fly fishing within an hour to an hour and a half from pittsburgh or is that too far from you ? if your going to go to hell run why not go the laurel highlands or even dunbar creek which the fly section and up stream has been known to produce some streambred brookies not native... as well as linn run also theres also a slew fo streams in and around donegal / champion areas too ok im done spot burning

Posted on: 2012/11/27 20:54

_________________
fly fishing - an addiction in which no one wants an intervention

Unfortunately you're in one of the worst parts of the state for trout. Like Flip said you'll have to travel to find some trout. There any wild trout in your area but search the stocking list for your county on the fish.state.pa.us site for a fall stocking. The laurel highlands area is a good option as well as the Allegheny national forest area, but both are good drives for you.

Don't discount other species of fish too. Bass, panfish, pike, walleye, musky, etc. You can definitely find some of those in your area.

Most of all, keep asking questions on here. We'll be more than happy to help.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I fish for different species just havent with the fly rod, may try to get out this weekend with the weather outlook, depending on sons hockey schedule. Guess I will have to try and exploit the gps with the UFM I have. I just got back into fishing this past spring and just not real familiar with the creeks and access points, only one way to do it.Thanks again for all the responses.

I grew up near Pittsburgh and was out there in the Spring. Try the class A's in the Laurel Highlands. Hell Run is rather isolated so if you have no luck, there isn't much option for trying an alternative. There is a large group of steams in the Laurel highlands.

I'm working on the 2013 updates and should have the equivalent of the PGC county guide maps with all the stream lines in the phone apps which should help this year.

I use the app in the field all the time and keep trying to make it better for me as well as my customers.

+1 on the Laurel Highlands, the big thing there is many streams are on public land there and though some are stocked many have wild trout in them too. I was in Fayette County in '06 for over a month one spring and fished a bunch of good streams down that way and up to the Laurel Highlands, and the bonus was they all had Green Drake hatches and they were good hatches. You just have to look at the lists, there's many more options than listed above.There's one I fished out there that my fishing partner and I caught 100 trout each on, won't say which one because I think it is mostly on private land but I wasn't sure about that. All trout caught on Coffin Flies, and we caught 3 species of trout. The only thing I'll say is it wasn't Dunbar but was a tributary to tributary to the Yough.

Posted on: 2012/11/29 9:53

_________________
George Orwell warned, "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Well I think my plan is going to SRC on Saturday with a friend who used to do alot of kayaking in that whole area, may even bring him a spare rod. Sunday may go to Buffalo creek. Will fish for trout and smallmouth or whatever.My next question would be on fly recomendations and presentations. IE strike indicators. Thx Norm

I grew up in Armstrong County, and yeah, it's not a great place for trout fishing. As far as wild trout, there's virtually nothing. A few in the Pine Creek drainage, but the populations there are too small to consider it a viable "fishery."

As for stocked fish options, there's some. Again, the Pine Creek drainage. Cherry Run is a small, stocked stream. The Redbank is bigger water and well known. Cowanshannock is well known. Much of the upper end is farmland, but in the area of the river hill it's steeper, rockier, woodsy, and has great holding water.

If talking about travelling, from the Armstrong/Butler county corridors, it's closer to the greater ANF region than it is to the Laurel Highlands.